


But, Like, Think About It For A Minute

by witchfutaba



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M, just a bit of tension ykno, rated mature for AlCoHoL, theres no spicy stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26696401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchfutaba/pseuds/witchfutaba
Summary: Ryuji and Goro get bored waiting for a Phantom Thief meeting that never materialises.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	But, Like, Think About It For A Minute

Goro was very good at compartmentalising emotions and processing situations as they came at him. Thus, he was able to break down what he was experiencing into its base components and lay them out simply:

1\. The Phantom Thieves clearly had better things to do than turn up to a meeting which they themselves had decided to call.

2\. Sakamoto clearly didn't feel the same way considering he was the only one other than himself who bothered to turn up.

3\. Half an hour of sitting in near-silence waiting for mutual acquaintances to arrive bred boredom and awkwardness.

The nippiness of the November air snuck through the cracks of the windows in Kurusu's attic, chilling the room and causing both the boys' bones to ache. The floorboards creaked, the dim autumnal sun permeating the room as the clocks on both their phones ticked by just past 3PM. Both group chats were completely silent (the original Thieves' chat and the fake plastered one created to fool Goro, which of course did not work) and they could only twiddle their thumbs for so long. The gentle hum of the space heater did little to help the temperature, doing more with its gentle orange glow to light up the otherwise dim corners of the room. While it wasn't quite cold enough for frost to be forming yet, one could feel winter creeping in by the tired creak of the leather futon, or the stiffness of the door to Leblanc. 

"Sakamoto." Goro wasn't quite sure why he spoke, but Ryuji's eyes jolted nonetheless from whatever crappy gatcha he was distracting himself with, dropping his phone to his side and staring over at the rickety chair Goro had sat himself in.

"Huh?"

"I don't suppose you have any idea where the rest of our comrades are?"

Ryuji's brow furrowed, and he stared back down to his phone, hooking his leg up to support his arm and clearly trying to act more disinterested in the conversation than he was. Nothing Goro hadn't seen before. 

"I got nothin', dude. Ain't heard anythin' since this morning. 'kira said something about goin' to the arcade after school, but I didn't think it'd take this long. None of them are pickin' up either, so I guess it's just us for a while."

"How delightful." Leaning back and stretching his arms above his head, Goro sighed, bringing his case up to the old wooden table and clicking the latches open with his thumbs. It was the simple things that kept him going in the ordeal that was living, like opening his case as if he were about to pass drugs off to some mafia boss. As if that was something he hadn't actually done before.

"What do you keep in that thing, anyway?" Ryuji's eyes darted over briefly, leaning forward a little from his spot on the futon and smirking. "Probably just papers and shit, right? Mister 'Ace Detective' and all." He would've been confident in his guess had Goro not flashed an uncharacteristically genuine smile back at him, pulling a bottle of clear liquid from within.

"Ah, not quite."

Ryuji's eyes widened. While naïve, he wasn't stupid, and he could guess what was in the bottle if not from the concealment then by the red label and the % value on the front. 

"Holy shit Akechi, where'd you even get somethin' like that? A- ain't it illegal for them to sell alcohol to kids?"

It was Goro's turn to furrow his brow this time, letting the bottle rest on the table with a thunk as he looked over, pulling two similarly concealed shot glasses from within a compartment of the endlessly deep case.

"I'll have you know that being eighteen I am not a child, and even if I were, that still would not have stopped me acquiring such things. Being the 'Ace Detective' as you'd put it gives you a certain level of... influence." Ryuji stared as Goro's hands unscrewed the cap. Calloused, scarred hands concealed by cool leather gloves. Bewhilderingly, he was pouring for both of them, and with hesitation Ryuji leaned over and picked up the glass up, feeling the pressure between his finger and thumb. 

"Should I presume you've never drank alcohol before, Sakamoto?"

"I mean, there ain't exactly any times I would've..."

Laughing to himself, Goro found himself standing up and dragging the bottle over to the far end of the table, sitting beside Ryuji. He wasn't sure why he was there. The contact felt nice. He hated it.

"That's just fine. For shots like these, you don't want to keep it in your mouth for too long. This stuff's strong, but not strong enough to kill a horse or anything; just enough to give you a little spring in your step. You tilt your head back, throw it in, let it hit your tongue and then swallow to get it gone." Demonstrating himself, Goro tipped back his shot glass and took down the foul tasting liquid. It was cheap but strong, and that's all he needed to be carrying around with him. Grimacing a little, he could already feel the buzz in the back of his neck and the tingle in his palms as he turned to Ryuji.

"Your turn."

Shrugging, Ryuji ran his free hand through his hair as he swirled the liquid around in the tiny receptacle. Was this alright? It wasn't as if the Thieves didn't know Akechi was a traitor or anything, they were planning far in advance to foil his plans at the end of Sae's palace, and yet he didn't see a manipulative mastermind serial killer beside him. He saw a boy that was forced to grow up too quick, manipulated somehow into doing someone else's bidding and pretending to be an adult to not admit the fact he wished to be a child. That, however, was too much to unpack, and deciding that free alcohol was better than no alcohol, Ryuji knocked back the shot, coughing a little afterwards and thumbing his chest with his fist at the strength.

"What the eff, bro? The hell's in that shit, pure ethanol?"

Laughing loud enough to surprise them both, Goro turned and faced the growing man beside him, in turn having his own revelations about the boy. Where he had seen him as a mindless follower of the Thieves, dumb enough to not question the ulterior motives but strong enough to exact them, there was something more to him. A weathered kind of life experience that only came with having been treated like shit by not only adults, but peers too. A distance, enough to keep most at arm's length not entirely by choice, but by nature alone. Such things didn't keep Goro far away however, as he found himself patting Ryuji's thigh and smiling comfortingly. Why was he doing that. What a terrible idea.

"Trust me, it gets better after you numb yourself to the taste. Besides, I didn't expect you to know the technical terms as well as you do."

Scowling exaggeratedly, Ryuji turned to stare, managing to not look intimidating in the slightest.

"I had to not fail Phys-Ed and Chemistry while I did track. Not like it matters much now, but I wasn't the worst back then, y'know?

Goro hummed, considering the information presented to him while, for some ungodly reason he poured more shots. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

They took another set. And another. They stopped after the fourth, the hour having ticked over to 4PM as they spouted absolute bullshit at each other, Goro's filter almost completely gone and Ryuji's trust of the boy having gone from nought to 'I would trust this man with my life'.

"But, like, think about it for a minute; there was just this huge sun baby in Teletubbies and no one else thinks it's fucked up!? Not a SINGLE person?" Ryuji half-yelled, his cheeks red and his breath smelling foul as he gripped Goro's shoulders and leaned in, swaying gently. Adorable.

"I'm not saying I disagree with you, but do you really think that's the weirdest thing about that show? Didn't they have some jelly converter machine or some shit like that?" He slurred back, argyle sweater abandoned on the edge of the futon as his shirt buttons had slowly become a little undone, showing more collarbone than perhaps intended.

"Right? Like, ain't it kinda cult-y? They all got names like Lala, Tipsy, effin' Po or whatever... like, ain't that what, uh..." Staring off into the distance, Ryuji slowly stopped talking, his train of thought less coming to a stop and more making a crashing halt. Giggling drunkenly, Akechi filled in the blanks.

"The name of the panda from Kung Fu Panda?"

"YES! Right? Like, don't you think it's all some conspiracy? The children's entertainment industry is all connected, bro, it's all linked!" Gesturing wildly and almost slapping the other boy in the fact with his hands, Ryuji indicated things that weren't there and gesticulated his wild theory to Goro, who looked on with an odd admiration.

"I respect your theory, but I will have you know Dreamworks is not 'children's entertainment'. The deep intricacies of the story of Shrek 2 go beyond your ability of understanding, I'll have you know."

"Oh, blow me dude."


End file.
